Joining Columbia’s OmniTen

I’ve been a bit busy lately, so I wasn’t able to break the exciting news in time – but Modern Hiker has joined Columbia Sportswear‘s OmniTen Program.

So, you might be asking yourself – just what IS OmniTen, exactly? Apparently, the fine folks up at Columbia picked ten outdoorsy writers, bloggers, gear-testers, and social-media troubadours from around the country to test out their new line of 2012 products before they hit store shelves. I’ve already received a few goodies and will be writing about them shortly. They’re also taking us out into the field to test the gear first-hand, too — in mid June I will be joining my compatriots in Sedona for a few days before revisiting my backpacking trip to Havasu Canyon.

The people they’ve selected for this program seem to run a fairly broad range of interests – skiers, bikers, runners, climbers, and surfers – but it looks like a pretty good crew. And it includes the venerable Calipidder, who joined me on a trip to the GORE-TEX factory a few years back.

As most of the other group members have stated, I will be very transparent with all of my reviews of products and anything else Columbia throws my way. Columbia is giving Modern Hiker a lot of goods and services for free, but if I don’t like something I’m definitely gonna let you know about it.

Since founding Modern Hiker in 2006, Casey's writing has appeared in Backpacker, the REI Blog, Adventure Journal, and Sierra Trading Post's Social Hub. He was in Columbia Sportswear's inaugural #OmniTen program and was featured prominently in their documentary "I Am #OmniTen."

His stories for Modern Hiker have brought regional and national attention, and have been featured on Good Morning America, NPR, and the Associated Press.

Casey is also an award-winning television writer-producer, and was Series Producer of pivot's TakePart Live and Head Writer of G4's Attack of the Show.